The stark reality of middle class jobsPress clippings on the plight of the well-educated and not so well-educated in the age of global and digital competition, published on Aug. 2, 2016--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is no secret that the digital and global free market is creating a reality that has everyone with his or her back to the wall. No matter whether you are rich, poor, high up in the ranks or down under the bridge, chances are that you are exceedingly exhausted and barely scraping by at least emotionally. Noah denkt™ has touched upon this many times before. And yet we cannot take our eyes off that highly disconcerting aspect of our post-modern life. After all, it is quite likely that there is something seriously unsustainable going on here. As long though as we do not have a workable answer to this structural hyper-stress, we must contain ourselves to state the obvious. That is why we have decided to give you here a series of clippings and excerpts on the current state of various, erstwhile well-to-do professions and industries. We believe that these clippings speak for themselves. And the sheer number of them is staggering.

1) Let’s start with the farming industry and a Euronews report put together by Valerie Zabriskie. It talks about the unusually high suicide rate among farmers in the European Union.

Excerpt: “…French farmers are committing suicide on an almost daily basis, largely due to financial pressures arising from a crisis in agriculture. The problem is not just a French one; all over the European Union farmers are struggling to survive amid falling prices for products such as milk and pork.While global economic conditions are a factor, dairy farmers in the EU have been hit particularly hard because of a decision to end milk quotas. A sector that was for decades fixed and regulated by Brussels has been opened to the vagaries of internal and external market forces.Coinciding with a fall in global demand for milk and a Russian embargo, the result has been disastrous for farmers, many of whom have tragically taken their lives. Campaigner Jacques Jeffredo believes some 600 committed suicide every year:“It’s a phenomenon that is the same in other European countries,” he tells Reporter. “We can talk about Germany, where the numbers are a minimum of 500, then 400 in Belgium and in Italy there are a lot of suicides as well.”(see: Euronews: Farmers’ suicides, the rising human cost of the EU’s agriculture crisis )

2) The question of survival is not just a challenge for backward farmers though. High Street retailers are equally affected. Here is an excerpt from an article on the dramatic decline of major retail chains in the US which appeared on Spiegel Online (translation provided by Noah denkt™)

“… The legendary US-department store chain Macy's is in a terrible shape. Their flagship stores which almost for a century were the world-biggest and which have recently been refurbished in the course of a 400-Million Dollar modernization program – remain an attraction for tourists from Europe and Asia. However, these tourists don’t spend as much money there as they used to and US customers spend even less in there.The turnover of the group - which includes 769 Macys-and 43 Bloomingdale's branches - fell five quarters in a row; lately it fell to 5.8 Billion $ which is nearly half a billion less than the year before. The employees clearly feel the pinch: Macy's boss Terry Lundgren who in fact blamed low-spending international clients for the company’s stagnation will be substituted by his deputy at the end of the year. But will the new man at the helm be able to turn the tide?Obviously, there are deeper structural issues that high street retailers are being faced with these days. And that is true not only for Macy's. Many other famous US department stores are equally in the doldrums.Take Neiman Marcus, for example, and its luxury store Bergdorf/Goodman, an institution on the Fifth avenue: Its income shrank within one year from 20 million to 3.9 million $. Add to that a five billion $ dollar debt which the company holds. According to the "New York Post" Neiman Marcus is now look for a buyer for its Bergdorf/Goodman store - … in China."(see: Marc Pitzke: Niedergang der großen US Kaufhäuser: Schlussverkauf, Spiegel Online)

3) Now granted the aforementioned cases may not come as a surprise to you. So let’s go outside the perimeter of the usual suspects and focus on the legal profession instead. The situation there isn’t any lighter. Recently a TV documentary by Germany’s public TV channel „Das Erste“ highlighted the suffocating and impossible job reality that judges on Germany’s low-circuit courts are subjected to. When reading this you should bear in mind that it takes a first rate exam to become a judge. Only the very best graduates of ever year in law school stand a chance to start as a judge. In light of this their miserable job reality is even more mind-boggling.

Summary/copy text of the aired program: In the documentary judges and other court officers talk openly about the miserable conditions of their work. Lack of public spending into the judicial system, the challenging transition from paper archives to digital folders and the tripling and quadrupling of case related material not the least through extended transcripts of digital surveillance leave the courts in dire straits. 2000 vacant position for judges have not been filled due to austerity politics. The increasing workload placed on the resident judges therefore forces them to work overtime and preside over cases on weekends while their wages continue to be depressed. Comparing it to the rest of Europe, the remuneration of judges in Germany is slightly better than that of judges in Armenia or Albania. As consequence there are more incidents of burnout in the judicial collegiate, higher rates of sick leave and more and more missed procedural deadlines. As one expert put it: Given the current inadequate circumstances in the judicial system, Germany would not even be admitted into the EU if it were to apply for membership today. (translation provided by Noah denkt™)(see: Die Story im Ersten. Erledigt! Deutsche Justiz im Dauerstress, elaborated by Gesine Enwaldt and Holger Trzeczak; ,first aired on July 25, 2016)

4) Now compare the situation of German lower circuit judges to that of young defense attorneys in the US. At the Printers Row Lit Fest in Chicago, the former OJ Simpson prosecutor, Marcia Clark talked about the business challenges that young attorneys are being faced with when running their own practice. Here is an excerpt of her interview with David Heinzmann of the Chicago Tribune:

Marcia Clark: “AFTER THE SIMPSON TRIAL THIS [i.e. (attorneys appearing on TV as legal experts] BECAME A COTTAGEINDUSTRY, COVERING TRIALES BECAME A NEW FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT, AND LAWYERS, ESPECIALLY THE YOUNGER ONES WHO NEED TO GET THEIR NAME OUT THERE AND PUMP UP THE PRACTICE, GO ON THESE CABLE TALK SHOWS. SO IN [Marcia Clark’s novel] "BLOOD DEFENSE" THE LEAD IS A CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER FROM INDIANA; SAMANTHA BRINKMAN. SHE INCORPORATED SO MUCH OF MY LIFE EXPERIENCE AS A DEFENSE LAWYER, AND I'M DOING CRIMINAL DEFENSE NOW ON APPEAL. I HANDLE COURT APPOINTED APPEALS FOR THE INDIGENT.SO I GET TO INCORPORATE ALL OF THE WILD CHARACTER I GET TO MEET IN IT, AND TALK ALSO ABOUT THE WAY THE WORLD IS FOR A LAWYER NOW. SO SHE IS SITTING IN THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE BOOK, SITTING IN A STUDIO, TWEETING, COME SEE ME. I'M ON THIS LIVE, SHERRY LIVE, CHECK ME OUT AND THEN THE RESPONSES SHE GETS ON THEIR TWITTER FEED, WHICH AREN'T ALWAYS AS FRIENDLY AS THEY MIGHT BE … . I INCORPORATE EVERYDAY LIFE, TODAY'S WORLD IN THE WORLD OF LEGAL PRACTICE. …

Heinzmann: … -- SHE IS A YOUNGER DEFENSE LAWYER. TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCES AS A YOUNG DEFENSE LAWYER … SHE IS ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND SHE IS ON TV A LOT BUT SHE IS STILL LIVING A LITTLE HAND TO MOUTH. JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE DOING THIS MEDIA STUFF DOESN'T MEAN YOU'RE NECESSARILY ROLLING IN DOUGH.

Marcia Clark: THAT'S A GREAT POINT, DAVID. THAT'S SUCH A GREAT POINT, AND IT'S TRUE. PEOPLE SEE YOU ON TV AND THINK YOU MUST BE RICH. RIGHT? YOU KNOW THEIR FACES AND IT'S THIS EQUATION WE MAKE BUT IT'S NOT TRUE, AND A LOT OF THE PEOPLE YOU SEE TALKING ON TV ARE JUST LIVING REGULAR LIVES, OR IN SAMANTHA'S CASE NOT EVEN QUITE AS GOOD AS REGULAR. SO SHE IS SITTING THERE WITH SCUFFED UP SHOES AND HER SKIRT HELD TOGETHER WITH SAFETY PINS BUT YOU CAN'T SEE THAT. THE CAMERA GOES TO HERE. SHE HAS HAIR AND MAKEUP WIZARDS TO MAKE HER LOOK FANTASTIC AND SHE LOOKS LIKE A MILLION BUCKS WHICH THE SHE NEEDS TO IN ORDER TO GET CLIENTS… “

You get where we are going with this, don’t you? According to Marcia Clark, - and there is no reason to doubt her assessment -, not even appearing on national TV necessarily constitutes your professional breakthrough moment. One is attempted to ask, if this doesn’t work, what then does do the trick? It’s depressing, isn’t it, to realize how far removed that breakthrough moment actually is in the global, digital marketplace. Clearly, the bar may not be that high for software engineer or entrepreneurs. But for all of us lost souls in the legal profession, in humanities and in the socio-political field that bar is quasi insurmountable!

5) But let’s not get distracted here with our own plight. Let’s focus instead on that of young professionals on their way up in the supposedly glamorous financial industry. In 2014, Kevin Roose published his bestseller “Young Money – Inside the hidden World of Wall Street’s Post-Crash Recruits”. (Grand Central Publishing, New York) The book talks about the experiences of eight entry-level workers at major investment banks in the US. A blog post on Business Insider reflects on the content of this book. Here is an excerpt from that Business Insider blogpost:

"Young Wall Street Life is Hell ...

Yes, the life of a young analyst on Wall Street can be miserable. With the help of his eight analyst-subjects, Roose paints a very accurate portrait of the often soul-destroying 100-hour workweeks, tyrannical bosses, and menial Excel and PowerPoint work that the job encompasses.

I spent my first year in absolute misery, sitting in an analyst bullpen in M&A, taking orders from my ass-kissing Associate staffer. I suffered through insanely and needlessly long hours, juggling face time, monkey work, and bogus fire drills initiated by an insecure VP, all while being stifled by an absurdly rigid hierarchy.(….)Wall Street is bad for you ...

Not only that, the job can make you ugly and fat. Roose comments on the noticeable impact it’s having on the appearance and health of a few of his subjects.

This is a fair point. No time or energy for the gym. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner at their desks. And, it’s not only the job that has contributed to the weight gain. For many of these kids, it’s the first time in their lives that they have more money than they have time to spend it. That means whenever they’re not eating at their desk, they’re dining (and drinking) out — lavishly.

Swiss Insurers and JPMorgan Have More than ‘Suicides’ in CommonBy Russ Martens and Pam Martens: March 11, 2014“Questions continue to mount over why a rash of suspicious deaths among executives in the financial services industry areoccurring now when the worst of the crisis, layoffs, bankruptcies and bailouts occurred over five years ago – or at least Federal officials keep assuring us that the worst is over.The underlying concern is that we still cannot get a clear assessment of global financial risks because of what we can’t see:the interconnectedness of global banking; offshore banking; off balance sheet vehicles; and regulatory arbitrage where U.S. financial institutions move high risk operations to foreign locales with light-touch regulators.It now emerges that there are significant financial ties between JPMorgan Chase, which experienced three suspicious deaths of employees in their 30s in January and February of this year, and two Swiss insurers where a suspicious executive deathoccurred in August of 2013 and another this past January, the week before a JPMorgan executive was found dead on a 9th level rooftop of the bank’s European headquarters in London.

A Citigroup Banker Dies – Along With Responsible Press ReportingBy Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 20, 2014Depending on where and when you got your news yesterday on the tragic death of Shawn D. Miller, a Managing Director ofWall Street mega bank, Citigroup, you were either emphatically told he died of a suicide or you were led to believe he was murdered. By late evening yesterday, the story had disintegrated into wild speculation. The New York Daily News ran this stunning headline, based on anonymous sources, at 9:22 p.m.: “Banker, 42, slashed his own throat in Manhattan bathtubduring drug- and booze-filled bender: sources.”It is becoming abundantly clear that if you work for a major Wall Street firm and die a sudden death, it will be shaped, molded,twisted and contorted until it fits with the suicide narrative – no matter how strongly the facts argue otherwise.

Wall Street Banker Deaths Continue; Where Are the Serious Investigations?By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 2, 2015Last Thursday, 29-year old Thomas J. Hughes, later described by his brother as “one of the happiest people I know,” allegedly took his life by jumping from a luxury apartment building at 1 West Street in Manhattan. Before any serious investigation had taken place, the New York tabloids had dismissed the matter as a suicide. Hughes was an investment banker on Wall Street"

It goes without saying that Noah denkt™is in no position to independently verify the veracity of the blog posts mentioned above. But we know from personal contacts that life in and at the helm of investment banks takes its toll. Experiencing tinnitus and burnout syndrome are not unusual. And by the way, the same can be said about the medical profession, about priests, notably in the Catholic Church, teachers and journalists.

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